#7 - Omega Pizza - Sam's synopsis

The very first thing you should notice about Omega (and its very best quality) is the fantastic beer selection for a small local pizza shop.  For those of you who don't live in Philly, the liquor laws here are insanely outdated and there's no dedicated packie where you can pick up booze - its either the beer distributor to get large quantities or the local delis and pizza places where you can get six packs (side note: if you don't know what a packie is, you're obviously not from the greatest state in the US).  Philadelphia is dumb.

This name is ridiculous

Sandya and I split a mixed six pack (my choices: Southern Tier Eurotrash Pilz, Ommegang Three Philosphers, Dogfish Head Aprihop) over a large veggie pizza.  There is no pizza menu, unless they do a really good hiding job, so we just asked for a large pizza with veggies on it and they put on what they had.  The veggie assortment was spot on - spinach, broccoli, onions, tomato, green peppers - and the veggies themselves were really fresh looking and tasting.  The pizza itself was better than I was expecting.  Every time I hear someone talking about Omega's, it's always about how awful the food is, so I was expecting something that was barely edible.  What I got instead was a pretty decent pizza that wasn't overly greasy, had a nice proportion of cheese to toppings, but was a little bland - we added a lot of salt/garlic salt to it.  The crust was also pretty boring, but just the right thickness.  It wasn't a spectacular pizza, but it wasn't horrendous either.  I had my leftover slice for lunch the next day, and it held its own. That's been the trend so far, everywhere we've gone has been pretty mediocre save Ants Pants.  Let's hope for something exciting to happen soon.

that's a pretty good looking pizza, amirite?

Quite the beer selection, quite the atmosphere

Now onto the more exciting portion of our dining - the atmosphere. Omega has a similar vibe to the local pizza place I used to go to after middle school - the pizza's not the best but everyone goes there to hang out.  I saw a strange array of people walk through, including a very sassy grade schooler, an older couple who probably could have been on an episode of Sick, Sad World from Daria, and two dudes who I swear were the Philly version of Jay and Silent Bob.  At one point people in the neighborhood marching for Take Back the Night came by protesting.  There was a group of bandana dog hipsters drinking Bud Light, and a homeless guy asking for money to buy milk and cereal who refused to take a slice of pizza from me.  Lots of dudes who had obviously just come from working out buying beer, and even a few people that we knew.  This place is a hot spot for interesting neighborhood folks, so if you ever want to people watch, come grab a beer, a slice of pizza and sit down for 20 minutes.  You won't be disappointed.

Sal's Omega Pizza (does anyone call it that?)
2145 South St  
Philadelphia, PA 19146

(215) 985-2989

#6 - L2 - Sam's very brief synopsis and a few things to look forward to in the near future!

Now that summer is fast approaching (although the weather might disagree with that half of the time), Sandya and I will obviously be slacking off more than we already do, since everyone knows that while summer is pegged as a productive time for graduate students because there are no classes, no undergrads, no seminars and aaalllll that time to do research, we have much more important things to occupy our time with, including but not limited to: Center City Sips, general day drinking, playing tennis, summer blockbuster movies (Into Darkness amirite?), general debauchery, and of course updating our blog!

So basically what I'm trying to say with that really long-winded sentence up there is that you should expect more frequent updates from us, now that all our crazy personal business has calmed down and the season of procrastination is upon us. 

Another exciting event to look forward to is an interactive map of all the spots we've visited and where we're headed next!  We're currently in the planning stages and looking into how to make our ideas a reality, so hopefully within the next few months we'll unveil a new exciting feature to our blog.

Speaking of more fun exciting events, you have hopefully read our very first guest blog for L2.  This is something that we want to continue for the occasional saunter, so if you are interested in guest blogging let us know - we love having company.

And finally, one final event to look forward to is Sam and Sandy's Seven Day Saunter, where we go to seven restaurants in seven days - should be an epic event happening some time in June or July, so stay tuned!  Lots of exciting things to look forward to this summer!

Evan did such a great job with his review, that I'm just going to post a few pictures to summarize my time at L2 - but I agree, good company makes any experience worth it.

I rather enjoyed my chicken pot pie - it was filling and made for lunch the next day

old timey portraits. I think they were in the bathroom but they may have been hanging on the wall next to us

yep, someone was embarrassed about bringing a box of tampons to the restaurant (hint: it wasn't me)

Sandya and I just got back from Omega Pizza tonight, so expect a review by the end of the weekend for that.

#6 - L2 Restaurant & Bar - Guest Blogger Evan's synopsis

Sam and Sandy saunter with guests! Hi all, we are honored to be the first guest bloggers on Sam and Sandy’s Saunter Down South Street. This time, our intrepid duo invited one or two friends to come partake in their meal and wound up with three extra’s including, Sandy’s brother and girlfriend, as well as my brother-in-law from NY.  Our port of call this particular evening was L2 Restaurant & Bar, which is an establishment in need of Robert Irvine for all of you Food Network fans out there because those mediocre reviews on Yelp! are indeed warranted.

Upon entering L2 at around 7pm, we walked in from a beautiful sunset to near total darkness. This might have been the dim lighting or the heavy drapery treatments throughout the establishment. However, we were promptly seated (or at least I assume we were as we were a few minutes late per usual!) at the only large table on the first floor of the building. Once seated, I had a prime view of the bar where I discovered the shelving in the bar looked like an actual earthquake hit it.

That earthquake hit bar. Slanty.

For an appetizer, I had the shu mai, which was actually pretty good. The appetizer portions were small, so we had to order a few for a table of our size, but they were all pretty delicious. The fried zucchini was a bit oily, likely because the oil in the pan was not hot enough when they threw the zucchini in. Note for all of you at home users, the oil should be hot and ready to go, otherwise the zucchini will just absorb the oil! Zucchini is also filled with water so it’s a good idea to pat down the zucchini with a paper towel or with a little flour before breading it. However, the folks at L2 did manage to keep the breading on at least, and the dipping sauce was actually pretty dynamite.

Zucchini. So this is where the parmesan went. 

Shu mai dynamite

For the entrée course, I had the Pasta Mikie which is billed as penne pasta with rose sauce and prosciutto. Though it took about nine years for the food to arrive, mine was delicious. The penne were cooked to a perfect al dente, the tomato based sauce was good (though tasted like it came from a can, which is probably did. Not hard to make your own sauce!) and the prosciutto was a nice bit of crunch and salt which the dish needed. The dish needed even more prosciutto in my opinion, and less of it mixed in. When you are trying to give texture to a dish with crispy elements and then bury the crispy elements in a sauce laden dish, what you actually wind up with is a soggy element. Still, the dish was not bad for the $12.00 and I left full and satisfied. My husband was not quite so lucky. He ordered the Chicken Parmesan, which he thought was a safe choice. Not so, dear reader! It was literally a frozen, pre-breaded chicken cutlet that had been deep fried and then drowned in a sauce with mozzarella cheese on top (which everyone does, but no one stops to realize that Chicken Parmesan is supposed to be made with Parmesan cheese. You know, like it says in the name of the dish.) It was bland, tasteless and they can do better with fresher ingredients that would likely save them on overhead and attract more customers.

Marilyn Monroe
Sorry, I (Sandy) didn't have a photo of Evan or Zach's entree.

Lastly, I had a gin and tonic, which was not bad, but didn’t blow my socks off either.

On technical merit, I would have to give L2 Restaurant & Bar a lukewarm review and maybe 2.75/5 stars. However as any diner knows, even the worst dining experience can be made whole if shared with the right people and while L2 Restaurant & Bar was lacking in some key elements, the conversation and friendship shared were absolutely delicious. We hope to saunter with Sam and Sandy again in the very near future!

L2 Restaurant & Bar

2201 South Street

Philadelphia PA 19146

215-732-7878

#5 - My Thai - Sam's synopsis

It's a good thing I don't blog professionally, because I am really bad about posting things in an orderly fashion.  To be honest, I used to be really efficient and timely when it came to all things work and non-work related, but nowadays I'm more of the, "ehh, I'll get to it eventually" mentality.  I think it's because I have TOO many things going on, which is both good and bad.  But anyways, before this turns into a livejournal post (yes, those things still exist), let us move on to the actual review.  This is the second-to-last restaurant on the 22nd-23rd stretch of South, so this is very exciting for us as we have been chugging through this block for quite some time.  Our final restaurant on the block is L2, and we may just have some surprise guest bloggers for you, so more reason to keep reading!

This was my second time at My Thai, and I have to say that one of my favorite parts of the restaurant is the decor.  Some people may find it gaudy or mismatched, but it's exactly the type of charm I think a restaurant like My Thai should have - colors everywhere, floral designs and an array of patterns everywhere to match the strange array of menu items (see below for pictures as I am too lazy to write captions tonight).  After perusing the menu, I'm not sure My Thai knows what kind of restaurant it wants to be, because it almost caters too much to the less adventurous eaters out there.

Anyways, moving on... to begin, I ordered a glass of wine which was served in a faux-crystal water glass, which didn't actually bother me all that much but it probably should have because who doesn't serve wine in a wine glass? It was only a little later that I realized they had a cocktail menu, otherwise I would have immediately gone for a rum-filled beverage, but the wine was fine for what it was (who am I kidding I don't really know anything about wine except that I like the taste of it). We decided to order two appetizers, because you gotta go all out when writing a food blog. I chose basil spring rolls, while Sandya ordered some sort of thai-inspired dip.  I enjoyed the spring rolls, they were fried, crispy and not too spicy, but the dip was only okay.  Not super flavorful, and I'm not a fan of shrimp so that made it less appealing in the end.

For dinner, I went with a chicken curry pot.  I think I've mentioned before that spicy food is not up my alley, so I tend to shy away from these things.  This happened to be 2 stars of spicy, and even that was a lot for me.  I am not the person to comment on whether or not the spiciness rating correlated well with the actual spiciness of the dish, but it was almost too much for me.  I ended up eating most of it, but I should have asked them to tone it down.  So I guess that was a fail on my part, because the only thing I can say about flavor is - spicy!  I've used that word too many times now, is there a good synonym for it?  Anyways, taste aside, the quantity was filling and the veggies and rice were fine.  All in all I'd say My Thai was decent - not my first choice for Thai food (that would probably be Lemongrass or Erawan - but then again, are any of these places even close to being authentic?  probably not) but not the worst in the city.  It's in a convenient location for me, but I wouldn't stop in on a whim on my way home from work.

This post wasn't terribly detailed, so I apologize for that.  I'm waiting for an extreme restaurant to go all out in my review - either really, really great or really, really horrible.  So far, most of the places we've hit have been mediocre to above average, so that leads to less exciting reviews.  Either that, or we need to make our experiences that much more exciting.  Perhaps the next review or two will lead to a more entertaining blog post...

My Thai
2200 South St
Philadelphia, PA 19146  
(215) 985-1878

#5 My Thai - Sandy's synopsis

So, from Fuzhou house, we move forward to My Thai, coming one restaurant from finishing the 2200 block of South street. This has taken us awhile, it was a busy block. My Thai is on the South-West corner of 22nd and South, but from their exterior, you'd think they were hidden away somewhere obscure. I counted six "My Thai" signs total, so if you are planning to go here, trust me you can't miss it.

The decor inside is mellow with soft lighting and the clientele was mostly elderly people. It reminded very much of A Mandarin, on 21st and chestnut, same clientele, less mellow decor. If you ever go to A Mandarin, you must get the Noodles with meat and bean sauce - it is fantastic. Is it a bad sign that it is only the beginning of this review and I am already talking about the food at a different restaurant - probably.

See. Mellow. 

Well I guess we should talk about the food. I should warn people that lately I've been eating Thai food from Circles. And anybody who has eaten from there will agree with me when I say the food there is fantastic. They have a delivery only place in south Philly and a .... crap...  talking about another restaurant again... god damn it, focus Sandya! So yes, My Thai's food, was okay. There was nothing bad about the experience or the food, but there wasn't anything outstanding about it. It was just boring. However lets try and highlight some good - they have an expansive menu ( that isn't represented well online). I think I ordered the Nam Prick Ong - which is group pork in a sweet chilli sauce with sticky rice. I wasn't too much of a fan, it was fine.

 

For my entree dish, I wanted to order something I hadn't eaten before. Every time I skimmed the menu, I'd linger on the swordfish with green curry, and this bad ass image of a sword fish would flash through my head. Just cause a fish looks bad ass does not mean it tastes good - I understand this on a basic level - but I couldn't help myself. So I got the swordfish! Yeah! Another good thing about the place, they give you a spice level range of 1-3, but if you ask for 4 - they will give you a 4 or higher. Perfect. But besides being at an appropriate spice level, the swordfish was, just fine. The fish was a little dry, but I haven't had swordfish before, maybe that's how it always is - boring. 

Swordfish. Yawn. 

Well it wouldn't feel right if I didn't bring up the toilet now cause its a good thing about this place, and I feel like there haven't been many. They have cozy display on a table you can stare at from the seat with candlelight and everything. 

Oh, and air freshener - thoughtful. They've also clearly had plumbing issues, so, you ladies who menstruate, be warned:

I'm unclear of what a wasted tampon is, cause I figure if it did its job, it was hardly a waste.  

So all in all, My Thai has a large menu, can make things very spicy, is accommodating of anyone with a gluten-allergy, has a great, romantic, cozy toilet and a polite and friendly wait staff. It is possible I just ordered all the wrong things, but the experience left me, you guessed it, bored. Can't say I will be returning. We should all go to Circles instead.

#4 Fuzhou House - Sandy's synopsis

               

My first thought when standing in front of Fuzhou House was acknowledging that I like the colours green and yellow next to each other. My first thought upon entering the establishment was that is was very much like the TARDIS - much bigger than I expected on the inside. It was downright spacious compared to the "just standing room" space I had imagined for a purely take-out place. 

Here is Sam with the bridge photo she speaks about.
Probably helped make the place seem a little more spacious

Considering all the space and tables, we assumed it was not purely take-out and ergo decided to settle in for an in-restaurant sit down lunch and approached the counter to order our food. I even added "for here" at the end. I began to have a few doubts about our plan when I saw this:

They sell Tea-bag dry noodles!!! No. Not that. I actually don't know what that is. It was the big NO Restroom printout that caught my eye. I did have to pee. We then received our order already packed up in bags as if it were delivery. Which cemented our decision - go back to Sam's house to eat while watching Galaxy Quest - much better plan I say! 

So why am I talking about all this irrelevant shit instead of the food. Well, cause it was standard american-chinese takeout and there isn't too much to say. But let me give you the low-down. I gauge chinese takeout places by their dumplings and I loved these pork dumplings - steamed and then slightly fried on the outside, delicious ginger/garlicky meat on the inside. Garlicky sweet/savoury dipping sauce. All very tasty. 

I got the egg-drop wonton soup which was fine. Good wontons. As an entree I got something I have never heard of before - Bourbon chicken. It was actually very tasty - a good mix of slightly honey-sweet with lots of garlic and chilli flavours. I would recommend trying it if anyone was getting take-out from here. It also lasted me three lab lunch meals - which was fantastic. 

Sam's little picnic table

All in all it was fine. Do I wish the place actually was a TARDIS that I can use to go back in time and avoid eating there? No. Would I ever go there again? Probably not. It isn't close to where I live and the food wasn't THAT mind blowing that I'd go out of my way to order takeout from there instead of someplace closer. If you're in the area for some reason and are craving take-out american chinese - it is good. I will end this post with sharing my fortune with you as Sam did. Fortune 1: "Man's biggest mistake is to believe he is working for someone else." Right. Boring. Fortune 2 was more of a definition really: "A schedule defends from chaos and whim". Lies. Even my anal retentive Google calendar where everything is marked down to the minute doesn't defend from chaos or whim. Besides, I like whim - especially when pronounced Stewie style with stressing the "H".

Fuzhou House

2202 South Street

Philadelphia PA 19146

#4 - Fuzhou House - Sam's synopsis

Ahh, Fuzhou House.  Every time I walk by this place it brings back memories of freshman year of college, where my hallmates and I would often order food from one of the local chinese take-out places, exclaiming their names in horribly offensive faux-chinese accents. YUUUMMMY GAAAHDEEN!  RIIIIIN'S GAAAHDEN!  I never went inside these holy temples of late-night quenchers of food cravings, but I imagine they looked just like the inside of Fuzhou House - a disheveled counter, a low-tech looking ATM, and a drink fridge full of regular soda but also containing take-out containers full of pink and yellow liquids labeled "lemonade."  After placing my order of wonton soup, vegetable fried rice and sesame chicken, we proceeded to sit at one of the two tables while waiting for our food. Not much else going on in terms of decoration, although there was a neat picture of a bridge. When we sat down, I noticed that a delivery was already being made 15 minutes into the restaurant being open, which I initially took as a good sign,

An outdated ATM, a delivery bike and a visual menu: the three key ingredients to any take-out chinese restaurant.

but then realized it was Sunday morning and someone was probably really hung over.  Soon after that, a group of college frat bros walked in and ordered a ton of food, pretty much confirming my thoughts that a large proportion of customers who eat here are probably trying to recover from a night of heavy drinking.  And there is nothing wrong with that.

We ended up eating at my place again, because the restaurant was too cold to sit in and we decided it was probably a good idea to have a private bathroom nearby, because you can never really be sure with american chinese food.  I started off with the wonton soup, because it was fucking cold that day and I love wontons.  Overall, I was pretty impressed with the taste and quality of the soup.  The wontons were a nice ratio of noodly-outside to pork-and-veggie inside, and the broth wasn't extremely salty.  And the wontons were flavorful too... one time I had take-out from one of those chinese restaurants in west philly (and actually I think there's one around the block from me now) where everything is behind "bulletproof" paneling and it was the worst wonton soup I have ever had.  Tasted like eating paper.  Anyways, wonton soup = delicious.  The veggie fried rice was pretty standard, but just what I was craving, so no complaints there (where standard = tastes salty and has colorful chunks that sort of resemble vegetables).  And finally, we get to the sesame chicken.  I decided to order sesame chicken because it's a staple of chinese restaurants, and I used to eat it a lot.  I probably should have gotten something that I currently find more appetizing (I was eyeing the cashew chicken), because I was really disappointed in the sesame chicken.  The chicken itself was fine, but it was the sauce that I really did not like at all.  It was too sweet, with no balance of other flavors. I took a few bites and that was it - no more sesame chicken for me.  I would not recommend it to anyone, unless disappointment is a hallmark of your life.

looks can be deceiving

mmm wonton soup

eat all the food!

Since I am incapable of ever being seriously mean to anyone, I will leave a slightly nicer note.  Sandya ordered some pork dumplings, and they were among the better ones I've had from any chinese restaurant.  Fried, delicious and paired with the perfect dipping sauce... mmm.  And, like I said above, their wonton soup lived up to my expectations.  So all in all, the dining experience was pretty much what I would have expected, but don't expect to hear me yelling FUUUZZZHHOOOUU HOOUUUSEE! late at night unless my freshman hallmates decide to come to Philly for reunion.

Finally, let's not forget the most important part of any chinese food experience: the fortune cookie.

In case you can't read that second one, it says: "Listen to life, and you will hear the voice of life crying, Be!"  thanks, fortune cookie, because that advice is super helpful.  Also, haven't had a chance encounter or visit since I got that fortune... you can't trust anyone these days.